The BabyPlus Prenatal Education System consists of a patented program of rhythmic sound lessons that are played to the growing child via a special speaker pouch that mom-to-be wears on her belly. Each lesson is an hour long and is to be played twice per day. It can be started anywhere from pregnancy weeks eighteen to thirty-two.

According to the promotional literature, “BabyPlus children have an intellectual, developmental, creative and emotional advantage from the time they are born.” Newborns who have been through the BabyPlus program will “more readily nurse, have an increased ability to self-soothe, are more interactive and responsive and are better relaxed and alert at birth.”

The BabyPlus idea has been around for twenty-five years and was originally fostered by Dr. Brent Logan through the Prenatal Institute in Seattle. Logan’s theory can be summed up briefly: the uterus is not a soundproof booth. Over the years, he developed an auditory system designed to stimulate the fetus’ brain. And once your baby has left the womb, your first opportunity to make him “brighter” has slammed shut.

The program has gained traction in the last decade largely through the work of BabyPlus’s president Lisa Jarrett, who holds degrees in both biology and psychology. Jarrett is also a satisfied customer who used the BabyPlus system with her four kids. Her acceptance wasn’t immediate. She played the tapes in order to appease her physician husband, who read about Logan’s work in a medical journal.

After her first baby, however, Jarrett knew “something positive developmentally was going on. It was more than just being smart,” she said. “This isn’t about creating a genius, any more than saying a prenatal vitamin is about making a body builder."

The time to start thinking about brain development is prenatal to three. We’re not trying to push something unnatural, we’re just trying to strengthen what’s already there.”

Jarrett feels that BabyPlus is poised to become another complement to prenatal development like ingesting folic acid or not ingesting booze. “We’re very enthused here because we really think that our time has come. Not just caring for a child’s body, we’re also caring for her mind,” she says. “This is about long-term learning skills — and our country is very interested in our child’s long-term learning nowadays.”

Compared to the LENA system, BabyPlus is a bargain at $149 for the basic package. Jarrett’s company also donates a fair number of them to parents who could benefit but lack the financial resources. In terms of building a better baby, $149 can be promoted as a small price to pay. And what parent, so the sales pitch goes, doesn’t want to strengthen her baby’s brain?